Pugna: An Eragon Fanfic

6

When the werelight had finally gone out, the elves had dispersed into the surrounding forest. I begin to walk off, but somebody calls out my name. I turn and see Queen Arya rushing towards me.

"Yes?" I ask.

"What happened when the dragon reached you Sabrina? He/she/it was right in front of your face and you seemed to be talking to it."

"He showed me some stuff" I say, and I launch into a description of my encounter with the dragon.

"...and then it was like, 'good luck on your quest, Sabrina,' and it left."

"Hmmm, I shall think about this. Meanwhile, don't share this with anyone else. I will also be giving you a round the clock guard."

"What! Why?" I sure didn't want to be guarded 'round the clock'!

The queen looked affronted. "You are an important person now! My honor would be tarnished if I let you run around Ellesmera unchecked!"

"Fine..." I say, secretly plotting how to give the guard the slip.

Arya must see this on my face, because she says, with a glint in her eye, "I will handpick the guard myself."

"Thank you." I bow. "I think I will go to my room now, your majesty, for I am very tired after today's events."

"Of course. However, you needn't be so formal with me. I'd rather like to think we are friends," she says with a smile. "Please, call me Arya. Also, tomorrow if you'd be so kind as to join me in my study, I plan to contact Eragon. He will be very interested in today's events. I trust you know who Eragon is?"

I nod. "I will be glad to join you, Arya. Only..."

"What is it?"

"I thought you couldn't scry people through the forest, due to the wards surrounding it," I say, looking to surprise her with the knowledge of her people.

"Indeed! And so it once was, but since then, we have modified the wards so that Eragon- and only Eragon- can contact us at any time."

"Smart."

"Quite... Farewell Sabrina. Until tomorrow?"

"Yep."

The queen strides off and I go straight to my bedroom. Man, that lady works fast, I think to myself as I see a female guard outside my door.
I nod to the elf woman and head inside. Finally, I can fully search my bag. The elf holding my bag before (Höllt? Höllr?) had neatly replaced both the books and the sword back in the bag. After all the excitement, nobody fully searched my bag past the sword, so I hope there's a hidden grenade or something in there to help me escape. It's not that I don't like it here, I just want to get cracking on that quest on the dagger.

Thank you Alydia, I think as I see two pairs of leather pants and two more jackets and shirts for me. Looking around, I see a purple tunic and leggings on the bed. Thank god I don't have to wear those! I look at myself in the full length mirror and see my pants and shirt caked in dirt, so I change into the new outfits from the backpack. They're just as comfortable as the old ones, maybe even a little better. Then, I take my hair out of its ponytail and brush it out, letting it fall in a straight curtain around my head. I search through the bag some more and find black lipstick and eyeshadow. I ignore the lipstick and put on the eyeshadow. I straighten up and look at myself in the mirror.

I look amazing. I look mysterious and beautiful, cloaked in black with dark, heavy eyes and pale skin. I am flawless. I lace up black knee-high boots, buckle on my dagger and throw my dirty clothes on the bed. Then, I see something white sticking out of the backpack. The sword. Diplomat. I wonder how you say that in the Ancient Language.

A word suddenly leaps unbidden to my lips. Kyvaet. How'd I know that? Huh.

So, I shove my faithful dagger in my boot and buckle on Kyvaet.

I walk out of the room and the guard gapes at me. "Is there anywhere I can practice with this?" I point to the white sword. Hey, we're a perfect match-black and white.

"Yes, follow me," she says in a lilting accent.

I silently follow her to a clearing in which elves are sparring violently.

"Maela!" Calls my guard. "This is my sister, Maela. You can spar with her." My guard retreats before I can even say thank you. I look at Maela. She has an evil smile on her face. I try to look intimidating.

"Here, I will guard your sword," she says, reaching for it. Her eyes widen as I pull my sword from its sheath but she says nothing. She softly says a few words that roughly mean cover this sword in a clear sheath.

Maela guards her own sword and adopts a defensive stance. I do the same. Immediately, I see that she's about to strike at my right shoulder, but I sense she's feinting.

So when she aims for my shoulder, I don't even move my sword, I just spin out from under hers. This causes her to change her plan, but at the moment, she's just dodging a series of blows I throw at her open back. She whips around. This time, I have the wicked grin on my face. Maela circles me, looking for an opening. I ignore it, because I'm purposefully letting my sword arm raise too high. When she strikes at my stomach, I parry the blow and twirl towards her left, where there is a slippery patch of grass. I make like I had slipped and she lunges. Amazingly, I do a backwards roll and she slips on the wet grass. Flicking up my sword to her neck, I say,

"Dead."